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More at Inside Bay Area and at Piedmont USD: “Three 12-year-old Piedmont boys are waiting to learn their punishment for spray-painting the "N" word across a Havens Elementary School wall.Police are calling it a hate crime targeting teacher Marjorie Lawson, since it was scrawled outside her office. Lawson is one of two African-American educators in the Piedmont Unified School District.It's still not clear why the young suspects came forward on Dec. 4, but Piedmont Police Department Capt. John Hunt said the boys voluntarily gave statements to both school officials and a detective about the crime."We then contacted the victim (Lawson) again, to let her know what we learned," he said."She already had some information from Havens, but we wanted her to know we notified the juvenile probation department and it's up to them how they proceed legally," explained Hunt, who couldn't give too many details since the suspects are underage. "I can tell you the three, white, male juveniles have not been arrested and not charged with anything."Hunt said the district attorney's decision of whether to file charges depends in part on what the victims involved want "and in this case we have two (victims) — the school, of vandalism, and the woman, of a hate crime. These kids are first-time offenders. The school district and the victim have both made it clear they do not want to press any charges against these boys."”

-- And this is the statement of Piedmont Superintendent Constance Hubbard:

Dear Families of Piedmont Students:

On November 3rd, the day before the national election, a hate crime was perpetrated upon one of our teachers at Havens Elementary School. Specifically, a racial epithet was written on the wall outside of the teacher’s office. To respect the victim’s privacy, this information was not shared until now. A police report was filed within the hour, and the District is continuing to investigate. Although the offending word was removed within 20 minutes of being reported, the effects of this crime continue to reverberate; this event has hurt our community.

The Piedmont Unified School District will not allow the benign acceptance of hate crimes. In the coming weeks, we will examine how we as a District and community can work together to strengthen our collective response to hate crimes in Piedmont. The Appreciating Diversity Committee has already met to support this work and discuss with us a course of action. We ask for your input and your active participation in our work ahead. On behalf of the District, though saddened by this incident, I look forward to working together to move us forward in a positive way.

Sincerely,

Constance HubbardSuperintendent

-- My concern is for and about the parents of the boys. What kind of home life did they construct? Was the "N" word used in it? What kind of punishment will they give out?